NC Art Pottery Orange-Red Glazes -- Chrome? Uranium? A Touch Of Gold Dust, Perhaps?

by Jay Henderson

Did North Carolina potteries use uranium oxide glazes in the pre-WWII art pottery era? For a long time many students of North Carolina art pottery have held that they did, but this author has been unable to find any verifiable example of such a glaze. There are many examples of chromium oxide red-orange glazes, of course, and the colors of these glazes can be very similar. However, chromium oxide is not radioactive -- uranium oxide is, even in a glaze -- and chromium oxide does not glow under ultraviolet light, while uranium oxide glazes often do fluoresce in the presence of UV light.

About a year ago, North Carolina pottery collector Peg Wiebe mentioned that she had used an ultraviolet light on pottery -- this can be used to detect repairs, for example. Intrigued, I did some reading and found that UV light can induce fluorescence in certain minerals, including uranium oxide. Cazart! A means to test the assumption that North Carolina potters used uranium oxide glazes! However, neither Peg Wiebe nor I have, so far, found a pre-WWII orange or red glaze which responds to UV light.

So why did most North Carolina potteries discontinue chrome red glazes after WWII? One assumption had been that the orange-red glazes couldn't be made once the U. S. government monopolized the supply of uranium oxide during WWII. Not so, it appears. Part of he answer may be changes in consumer preferences -- the 1940s and 1950s saw a shift to pastels and the 1960s a shift to rustic glazes. Probably more important was the necessity to adopt economies of scale in the post-war era in order to survive against competition from factory-made and imported wares.

Chrome red glazes are restricted to earthenware fired to Cone 08 or below, with Cone 010 being typical, and a finishing temperature of no more than 1750 degrees F. Above that temperature, chromium oxide changes to a green color in a lead glaze. (Exposure to a reduction atmosphere during firing will also turn the glaze black.) This firing range is much lower than the North Carolina potters used for earthenware and far below the Cone 3 (more or less) temperatures achieved at the J. B. Cole and A. R. Cole operations. Thus, chrome red pottery would have to be fired by the entire kilnload -- and that became economically impracticable as consumer tastes changed.

THE GOLD DUST MYTH

One persistent myth is that J. B. Cole Pottery used gold dust in its pre-WWII chrome red glazes. I can identify the source of this myth -- it came from Waymon Cole, who had an impish sense of humor and foisted the gold-dust story off on me in my gullible youth. Not until four decades later, when I began to take pottery classes at a local community college and studied clay and glazes, did I realize that Waymon had been pulling my leg. Gold is used in ceramics, but its use is very limited, partly by its volatility when heated to high temperatures and partly by its expense.

Consider this: in the late 1920s, the price of gold ran $21 per ounce -- about $260 per ounce in today's money. J. B. Cole's Pottery mixed its glazes in huge lots -- clawfoot bathtubs, for example. The cost of mixing in enough gold dust to have an effect on the finished glaze would have been prohibitive. Granted, chromium oxide isn't cheap, but at about two bits to a buck a pound, it was much more affordable than gold dust.

I cannot, of course, eliminate either possibility -- that some NC art pottery glazes contained either uranium oxide or gold dust. But in the absence of evidence, one must presume that neither was used. If anyone finds a vintage NC art pottery glaze that fluoresces under black light -- please send me pictures!

THE HISTORY OF URANIUM GLAZES

Uranium oxide added to a lead-fluxed glaze produces a spectrum of bright, attractive colors ranging from ivory, yellow, and orange to deep orange-red, depending on the amount added and the other characteristics of the glaze composition. The dark orange-red versions of uranium glazes are often spotted or streaked with black or cream-colored areas.

The glazes were very popular during the pre-WWII art pottery era and remain popular with collectors today - - good examples bring premium prices, especially for deep red pieces, even though this glaze is among the most available from that time. While uranium oxide has recently become available to potters once more, restrictions on the use of lead are likely to preclude the return of the lead-uranium glazes found on vintage art pottery pieces.

Although uranium glazes had been developed long ago (written formulas survive from the mid-19th century), they were not widely used until the 1920s. Following the discovery of radium by Marie and Pierre Curie in 1898, pitchblende was mined and processed for its very small radium content (about one gram of radium per three tons of pitchblende), resulting in the production of many hundreds of thousands of tons of uranium oxide compounds as by-products. These by-products were sold inexpensively for various uses, including glass and ceramics, until World War II. "Vaseline glass" made during the Depression era uses uranium oxide to produce its green hue.

Uranium pottery glazes were used commercially until 1943, when the supply of uranium oxide was monopolized by the United States government during the development of the atomic bomb. A familiar example is the "Fiesta" line produced beginning in 1936 by the Homer Laughlin Company of West Virginia, which used uranium oxide to make Fiesta Red and Fiesta Ivory glazes. The J. A. Bauer Pottery Co. in California reportedly used 450 pounds of sodium uranate per week during the 1930s.

The color of the finished glaze is determined by the amount of uranium oxide added to the base. Sodium uranate was the most common form of the oxide used by potteries. Because uranium oxide remains in a refractory state and does not contribute to the fluxing of the glaze, it can be added in relatively large amounts. Depending on the other constituents, lead-fluxed glazes would be colored yellow by additions of 5% to 10% sodium uranate by weight; orange by additions of 10% to 15%; and red by additions of 15% to 20%.

Finally, uranium oxide remains radioactive even when melted in a glaze. It can be detected with a real Geiger counter (not one of the yellow civil defense models; those are not real Geiger counters) and sometimes by the use of ultraviolet light. The response to the Geiger counter or "black light" is weakest for ivory and yellow versions, and strongest for the deep orange-red glazes. (Note that not all uranium glazes respond to a "black light.")

Is vintage uranium-glazed art pottery safe? Probably, as long as you don't use it to decant acidic substances such as orange juice, which will leach both lead and uranium from the glaze. A few pieces of uranium-glazed pottery in a collection are unlikely to be hazardous, although a large number in an unvented room might be; see the References for articles on this subject. Ironically, the most radioactive ware was Fiesta Red made by Homer Laughlin from 1959 to 1972, using depleted uranium which the Atomic Energy Commission had made available for commercial use; depleted uranium is far more radioactive and toxic than sodium uranate and resulted in glazes that produced radon.

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Copyright 2010 by J. R. Henderson. This article was originally published in Backcountry Notes, which provides references to source articles. Reprinted by permission.

In Memoriam: Nancy Sweezy

Nancy Sweezy, well known for her role in preserving the Jugtown pottery tradition, departed this life on February 6, 2010, at the age of 88.

Sweezy was already established as a potter and a proponent of folk art traditions when she came to North Carolina to run Jugtown in 1968. Her interest in the Southern pottery tradition resulted in publication of Raised In Clay - The Southern Pottery Tradition by the University of North Carolina Press in 1984. This work is an essential book for students and collectors of Southern pottery.

In 2006, Sweezy was awarded the Bess Lomax Hawes Award and a National Heritage Fellowship Award -- a lifetime honor presented to master folk and traditional artists -- by the National Endowment for the Arts.

Obituary by Raleigh Newsobserver.com -- Sweezy, 88, revived jugtown

Pottery by Phil Graves

by Jay Henderson

There are many students of North Carolina art pottery who consider Philmore Graves to be among the best turners in the renowned group of masters of that genre. Many biographies of North Carolina potters begin like the Gospel of Matthew, with a lengthy recitation of the potter's genealogy, and there are those who believe that good potters are born with their abilities. Phil Graves reveals the truth of the matter - - he did not come from a family of potters, but had learned the craft as an adult, achieving mastery by applying himself and seeking to produce wares as perfect as he could make them. Certainly, there is a great advantage to growing up in a potter's household, as Waymon Cole and Nell Graves had; but there are potter's children who couldn't turn a dog dish if their lives depended on it, and the work of Phil Graves proves that it is practice, application, and the desire the achieve that make a master turner.

Note: Click on any image for a larger view

Phil Graves at his potter's wheel was as much a perfectionist as he was in other aspects of his life. His kit was simple - - a small sponge, a pan of water, a rib, and a wire. Once a sufficient number of balls of clay was prepared, Phil set to turning at a pace that few could match. He stood at the wheel, of course, and deftly centered each ball of clay. The centering was the slow part. To my young eyes, it seemed as if Phil was pulling ready-made clay cylinders from a hole in the middle of the wheel. The process of shaping was completed, then finishing touches were made to the rim and base and the piece was wired off and set aside to dry. Vase after vase was pulled magically from the wheel, each one seemingly identical to the one before and the one after. When a shape called for handles, Phil made them quickly by hand and attached them, again, so that each piece appeared to be identical to the others.

There is not a single piece of pottery known to have been signed or marked by Phil Graves, yet his work can very often be identified with reasonable certainty. In addition to some reliable attributions which can be used for comparison, there are two sources of information to assist in the identification process. First, there are the characteristics of the pots themselves, particularly those made with handles. Second, there is the 1940 J. B. Cole's Pottery Catalogue, a priceless resource which contains monochrome photographs of more than 500 pieces of pottery.

Finding a piece illustrated in the 1940 Catalogue is always helpful and provides at least a starting point. This publication is particularly useful because the pottery is coded to indicate the maker and size of each piece – the serial number is preceded by a letter (“G” for Graves, for instance) and is followed by a measurement in inches. Thus the code G 283-7" indicates that the form is made by Phil Graves and has a finished height of about 7 inches. See IMAGE 2, which shows examples of a dozen forms, or "shapes" as many North Carolina potters called them, made by Phil Graves identified and by their code numbers.

The 1940 J. B. Cole's Pottery Catalogue does not depict every form and size made by the J. B. Cole potters. Some forms made in the 1920s evidently had been discontinued; a few forms from the 1930s were omitted; and others developed after World War II of course were not pictured. The 1940 J. B. Cole's Pottery Catalogue alone cannot be used to date pieces, since a great many of the same forms were made in later years. Dating a given piece requires consideration of the clay, the glaze, and production characteristics such as embedded stilt points and belt-sander marks (neither of which occur on pieces made of Michfield clay).

Because Phil Graves learned to make pottery as an adult, there is a progression in the quality of his work over time. The earliest pieces are good -- he did have a gifted mentor, after all, in Jace Cole -- but his drive to always do the best job he could shows up in improved pottery as time goes on. If practice makes perfect, the high-production environment at the J. B. Cole shop provided an ideal environment for Phil Graves. By the late 1930s, he was as skilled as the other potters working at J. B. Cole’s Pottery.

The two yellow-glazed vases shown in Image 5 demonstrate the progression in Phil Graves’ skill as a turner. The vase on the left, form G 284, is stamped “Sunset Mountain Pottery” and therefore can be reliably dated to the early 1930s. The vase on the right, form G 350, is glazed in the deeper yellow normally associated with pieces made in the late 1930s. Both are made with light Michfield clay. The thinner walls of the later vase are readily apparent.

The remarkable consistency of Phil Graves’ turning can be seen in the two vases illustrated in IMAGE 6. This style of vase, form G 395-8", appears to have been very popular in the 1930s and numerous examples have survived. The vases shown here, presumably kiln-mates, are virtually identical in all respects, as are the two examples of the same form depicted in IMAGE 1, above. The differences in finished weights of these vases is less than one-half of one per cent, a difference within the tolerance permitted by manufacturers of machine-made ceramics. Phil Graves' skill at the wheel approached the near-perfection seen in the work of A. R. Cole and Dorothy Auman.

J. B. Cole pottery was well-made but the success of the business depended on both quality and quantity. The potters were capable of turning out duplicates of the same form at a rate of dozens and scores per hour, depending on the size and complexity of the form. To "have a shape" meant developing the ability to make the same form repeatedly and accurately many times. In order to produce such numbers the potters developed habitual ways of turning, altering, and handling the forms they made, to the point where pieces were made by second nature, with little or no conscious thought given to the process. These production habits reveal the “hand” of the potter – the marks left from the turning of the piece, the way in which a spout is formed on a pitcher, the methods of forming and attaching handles, and so on.

Even when two potters turn a similar form, very often the manner of handle formation and attachment provides a signature. Phil Graves developed characteristic ways of making and attaching certain types of handles which were distinct from the other potters and provide a way to confirm that he made a particular piece. Pots which are altered after they are thrown (ruffled-edge vases, pitchers with pouring spouts) provide another source of characteristic methods.

Other factors to be considered are the clay and the glaze of the pottery. Until 1938, J. B. Cole’s Pottery used light-colored Michfield clay obtained from a deposit near Seagrove in Randolph County. The primary Michfield clay bed was sold in 1938 to a drainage-pipe manufacturer and sufficient quantities were no longer available. Thereafter, J. B. Cole’s Pottery obtained its clay from a red-clay deposit near Smithfield, North Carolina. This was the same clay used by A. R. Cole and was capable of being fired to terra-cotta temperatures, where it produced a dense, vitrified clay body. The fired color of this clay ranged from orange-red to brown.

The loss of the Michfield clay turned out to be a blessing in disguise. Michfield was a stoneware clay which was used for earthenware art pottery because of its light color, which helped produce clear, bright glaze results. The loss of the Michfield deposit was upsetting to the potteries which used it but Michfield was actually a poor clay for wheel-turned pottery, being “short” and difficult to work with. Potters often mixed some orange earthenware clay with Michfield batches to make it easier to use. The Smithfield red clay, on the other hand, was superior in all respects for wheel-turned work. Smithfield red clay was very plastic – that is, easy to form – but at the same time firm enough to resist sagging even when thrown very thinly and in radical shapes.

The change from Michfield clay to Smithfield clay resulted in better pottery, not only for Phil Graves but for the other potters as well. Nell Graves turned very thin-walled pieces with Michfield clay but her work expressed in Smithfield red clay was even finer, although it may take a micrometer to measure the difference, and allowed improvements in certain pieces, such as wider, thin-walled bowls for her "chamberstick" candle-holders. Waymon Cole developed the radically-shaped "Aladdin’s Lamp" teapot, a difficult form which he could make in production quantities with Smithfield clay.
The difference in the two clays is demonstrated by IMAGE 11 and IMAGE 12. The two vases shown in IMAGE 11 are the same form, the one on the left from the early 1930s and the one on the right from the 1960s. The 1930s example is made with walls not less than 3/8 inch thick (as glazed and fired) while the 1960s example of the same form is made with walls not more than 1/4 inch thick. The difference in finished weight of the two pieces is 1222 grams and 1006 grams, respectively, a reduction in weight of about 17.7 per cent.
The two vases shown in IMAGE 12 are the same form, the one on the left from the 1930s, glazed in green and white, and the one on the right from the 1950s, glazed in turquoise. Again, the wall thickness of the older, Michfield-clay example is about 3/8 inch, and of the Smithfield-clay piece, about 1/4 inch. The finished weights are 1918 grams and 1584 grams, a reduction of about 17.4 per cent, very close to the results seen in the vases illustrated in IMAGE 11.

From the 1920s through the early 1970s, J. B. Cole’s Pottery (called J. B. Cole Pottery after WWII) used fritted, lead-fluxed glazes almost exclusively. Glazes were mixed in large batches – Jace Cole had recycled a number of claw-footed, cast-iron bathtubs to hold glazes – and the more popular colors appear on a large number of surviving pieces. The glaze results on authenticated pieces are helpful in confirming the source of other pieces which have the same glaze.

Some of the glaze batches have unique characteristics which distinguish them from similar glazes used by other potteries. Light blue and blue-green glazes often show a marked speckling of the glaze colorant. The light-blue vase depicted in IMAGE 13, above, has speckles of colorant distributed throughout the glaze; because this vase bears the "Sunset Mountain Pottery" stamp, it can be authenticated as a J. B. Cole's Pottery product from the early 1930s and this glaze when found on un-marked pieces helps to verify their source.

In the 1930s, several J B. Cole glaze colors were over-dipped with a white glaze, including blue and white, orange (chrome red) and white, green and white, and rose and white. This method of glazing was used by several potteries but the results tend to be distinguishable. At some point the J. B. Cole white glaze became contaminated with flecks of blue, presumably from over-dipping dark-blue-glazed pieces, and these flecks show up on some color-and-white combinations. This blue flecking is illustrated in J. B. Cole Rose and White Art Pottery Glaze. The large ruffled-rim cabinet vase in IMAGE 13 is glazed in green overdipped in white and it has the blue flecking, eliminating any doubt as to its provenance.

While finding a piece with an impressed stamp, such as “Sunset Mountain Pottery” or “Goose Creek,” can be helpful in identifying its origin, other stamps can pose problems because J. B. Cole’s Pottery produced impressed-stamped pottery for other Cole family potteries, including A. R. Cole’s Rainbow Pottery. The pieces made by Rainbow Pottery in Sanford, N.C., are typically stamped with a round, India-ink stamp, but there are a few surviving examples having an impressed stamp which reads “Rainbow Pottery/Sanford, NC.” Examples of the round, India-ink stamp are shown in James, North Carolina Art Pottery, on pages 77 and 167-168, and in Lock, Traditional Potters, on pages 50, 133, and 196. On page 77 of North Carolina Art Pottery there is an example of the impressed stamp, which James calls a “rare stamp.” IMAGE 15 shows a piece with the same impressed stamp; it is a form G 305 and was made by Phil Graves at J. B. Cole’s Pottery. See, for comparison, the form G 305 depicted in J. B. Cole Rose and White Art Pottery Glaze.
The proper identification of vintage pottery can be a challenge -- but this is also part of the charm of studying and collecting North Carolina art pottery. There is a definite satisfaction gained from learning the clay and glazes of a pottery and the "hand" of a potter well enough to ferret out vintage pieces. Unfortunately, the work of some of the potters of that era, including Phil Graves, has not been subjected to thorough study. I may be partial, but I believe that Phil’s work is worthy of recognition in its own right.
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Text and photographs copyright 2008, 2009, 2010 by J. R. Henderson. This article is excerpted from a longer version titled Remembering Phil Graves which was published on Backcountry Notes; reprinted here by permission.

Treasures of the Earth Pottery Show & Sale

Treasures of the Earth opens next Thursday at the Cleveland Co. Arts Council.

Feb. 4 – March 11; Meet the Artists Reception, Feb 4th, 5:30-7:30pm

Cleveland County Arts Council Home

www.ccartscouncil.org

111 S. Washington St., Shelby, NC 28150 - Phone: 704-484-2787 - Email: info@ccartscouncil.org

Daison Ware

by Jay Henderson

Who made Daison Ware? Conventional wisdom holds that the pottery sold as Daison Ware in the 1930s and 1940s was made by various of the North Carolina Cole families, but that may not be so. Certainly, J. B. Cole's Pottery was a primary source, but there is insufficient evidence to attribute other potteries with this connection.

click on any image for a larger view

Daison Manufacturing Corporation -- sometimes incorrectly called "Daison Lamp Company" -- was a manufacturer/distributor of lamps and other housewares and was located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. According to the records of the Pennsylvania Department of State, Daison Manufacturing Corporation was a registered corporate entity from January 1, 1933, until its dissolution on October 29, 1958. The 1933 date is likely not the date of incorporation but is probably the date of the first accessible records; however, it does establish that there was a corporate existence in the mid-1930s. There is a second Pennsylvania registration for "Daison Manufacturing Company," changing the final word of the name. The reason for this duplication is unknown.

Daison was connected to the department-store trade, selling to those establishments in many locations along the Atlantic coast. The Daison label tends to be found in or near urban areas which featured department stores, such as Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., Richmond, and Atlanta. Daison lamps were artistically-designed, quality products and occasionally turn up in estate collections. Photographs of two Daison lamps are currently available on the Smithsonian Institution's CollectionsSearchCenter. During the 1930s and 1940s, Daison purchased pottery which it labeled as "Daison Ware" and sold as part of its department-store line.

Left: J. B. Cole's Pottery vase, by Waymon Cole, blue-and-white glaze

The connection between J. B. Cole's Pottery and Daison Ware is well-established and was attested by Waymon Cole in later years. The exact dates of the J. B. Cole - Daison Ware arrangement are unknown, but the best evidence would make it from the mid- to late-1930s through the mid- to late-1940s. It may be that the Daison account came after the Sunset Mountain Pottery arrangement with Treasure Chest/Three Mountaineers ended in 1935.

The relationship turned out to be the salvation of both J. B. Cole's Pottery and Daison Manufacturing. During World War II, metals which Daison used to make its lamps became difficult to purchase, owing to the demands of armaments production. Coin collectors are familiar with the "steel cents" made by the United States Mint in 1943 when, because of the use of copper for shell casings and other military needs, the Mint coined one-cent pieces on zinc-coated steel blanks for a year. The copper shortage meant a brass shortage, and brass was then as now a primary material for the making of lamp bases. Daison turned to J. B. Cole's Pottery for the production of ceramic lamp bases -- and it was this contract that saw both Daison and J. B. Cole's through the war with business intact. While J. B. Cole's Pottery had made lamp bases prior to this time, they are fairly scarce items prior to the Daison arrangement in WWII.

Right: J. B. Cole's Pottery cream pitcher, by Philmore Graves, turquoise glaze.

Unlike Sunset Mountain and other contract arrangements, the Daison Ware name was not stamped into the pots. Instead, paper labels were glued to the base of each piece. There are numerous examples of Daison Ware labels still in existence. Some of these labels are virtually intact, others are remnants, and undoubtedly some of the labels were washed off or otherwise removed over the years. The labeled pieces are they key to attribution of Daison Ware.

Many students of North Carolina art pottery had attributed Daison Ware pieces both to J. B. Cole's Pottery and A. R. Cole Pottery. However, one of my correspondents, North Carolina collector Peg Wiebe, mentioned last year that she had not seen a Daison Ware piece which she would credit to A. R. Cole. Peg Wiebe has seen a lot more A. R. Cole pottery than I have and knows it well. My interest whetted, I began making comparisons where I could, and concluded that she was correct -- A. R. Cole did not make Daison Ware.

To begin, I looked up the A. R. Cole "Daison Ware" piece in Lock, Traditional Potters, and saw immediately that the attribution is wrong. The vase illustrated in Lock (see image on left) is not an A. R. Cole piece but instead is a Nell Cole Graves form, N47-8" as illustrated in the J. B. Cole 1940 Catalogue (see image on right, below). Lock's 1940s dating is right, since J. B. Cole's Pottery had switched to the Smithfield red clay after the Michfield clay bed was sold in 1938. However, the glaze is not a lead-rutile glaze, but a green overdipped with white.

Other examples of Daison Ware mis-attribution came to light. For instance, a Rebecca pitcher sold at auction in 2006 is attributed to A. R. Cole but is unmistakably the work of Waymon Cole. A large vase sold at auction in 2007 provides another such example. Another piece, a pitcher with applied decoration, is consistent with the forms shown as W108 and W 109 in the J. B. Cole 1940 Catalogue. (This attribution requires thanks, again, to Peg Wiebe for her sharp eye and excellent memory.) By comparison, there are numerous examples of Daison Ware which correspond to J. B. Cole pieces, including this vessel, a form G308 (1940 Catalogue) glazed in rose-and-white. My working conclusion at this point is that Daison may have purchased pottery from more than one source, certainly including J. B. Cole, but not from A. R. Cole.

In his introduction to North Carolina Art Pottery, Everette James wrote, "Knowledge about North Carolina art pottery is an evolving process. A 'truth' widely accepted today may be dismissed tomorrow in light of new data." So it goes with Daison Ware pottery. Given the nature of such contractual arrangements -- the potteries made pieces by the truckload for delivery to such customers -- it is only reasonable to expect that there would be a good number of surviving examples. There are so many examples of J. B. Cole pieces sold under this label that the connection is unassailable. The same cannot be said of A. R. Cole wares.

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Text and images (excluding excerpts from The Traditional Potters of Seagrove, North Carolina, by Robert C. Lock, and from the J. B. Cole's Pottery 1940 Catalogue) copyright 2010 by J. R. Henderson. This article was originally published in Backcountry Notes. Reprinted by permission.

North Carolina Pottery Jugs, Jay Henderson

Jay Henderson, of Backcountry Notes, writes another great article on NC pottery.
This time he explores the North Carolina Jug, one of my favorite forms.
Take the time for a good read and some great pictures.

North Carolina Art Pottery Pitchers

By Jay Henderson

Pitchers and jugs are my favorite forms of art pottery -- and I include along with pitchers, cream and sugar sets, which provide a pitcher plus a bowl. Bonus. If a potter "sees me coming," he or she will place a few colorful pitchers at eye level. I actually use some of them, mostly for watering plants and other low-risk tasks, although most of these illustrated live in display cabinets or on high shelves. Right: Long-necked pitcher attributed to Thurston Cole, C. C. Cole Pottery.

Click on any image for a larger view.

When Jugtown Pottery kicked off the North Carolina art pottery movement in the early 1920s, its owners focused on two lines of ware: traditional lead-glazed "dirt dish" earthenware and new, colorful pieces based on oriental designs. Potters in the surrounding area observed no such strictures; whether by genius or by serendipity, they used colorful art-pottery glazes on anything that went into the kiln, pitchers included. The pitchers sold and, some nine decades later, they still sell.

Above: Green earthenware pitcher made by M. L. Owens, Seagrove area, North Carolina

The form and finish of the art-pottery pitcher demonstrates the range of the skills of the maker: the turning of the body; the formation of the spout; the attachment of the handle; and the selection and application of the glaze. As with other forms, each potter tends to develop characteristic methods which help to identify the maker even when a piece is unmarked -- and there a many unmarked, vintage pieces.

Left: The Rebecca Jug is also known as the Rebecca Pitcher. This example by Joe Owen illustrates the essential elements of the pitcher -- rounded on the lower body, necked in above, a widened rim shaped to form a spout, and an added handle.

As a utilitarian form, pitchers were made by all traditional potters, both in earthenware and stoneware. However, while a straight-sided vessel with a minimal spout and a plain handle would have been sufficient for the purpose, these working potters showed a high degree of artisanship in the making of such items. This may have had a commercial impetus -- a nice-looking pitcher would fetch a penny more than a plain one, perhaps -- but it also reflects the desire of many makers to turn pots which had a touch of artistry.

Pictured above: the genuine article -- a redware pitcher "slicked" with a clear lead-fluxed glaze. This example, with an ice lip, was found in North Carolina, maker unknown. It displays a simple elegance of form and function. The colors in the glaze are from impurities in the clay, rather than deliberate decoration.
When salt-glazed ware came to dominate the pottery trade during the 19th century, it was often fired green and plain, any embellishment being provided by the effects of the wood fire and the occasional kiln drip. Sometimes potters would decorate their pitchers and other utilitarian items with designs in cobalt oxide brushed on before firing. Cobalt oxide retains its blue color at the high temperatures needed to mature stoneware and cobalt sulfate, a water-soluble form, could be brushed on to decorate greenware without requiring a bisque firing. The examples shown above are modern interpretations of 19th-century forms, made by David Farrell of Westmoore Pottery.

During the 1930s, two markets developed for art pottery pitchers -- so-called "tourist pottery," small-to-medium sized pieces turned and fired in quantity for the tourist-shop trade, and small pieces made for the soap-and-candle enterprises, also made in wholesale lots and marketed in gift shops as well as tourist stops. Pitchers in the form of small creamers were easily adaptable to both markets. At right, an example of a small creamer outfitted with scented wax and a wick, then boxed for retail sale -- in this case, by the well-known Carolina Soap & Candle Makers of Southern Pines, North Carolina. On the left, a pair of tourist-pottery creamers. The very small "left-handed" cream pitchers were usually sold in Virginia as "Williamsburg Hand Made Pottery." The larger creamer may have been sold to any one of many tourist shops and resorts, often in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia or the vicinity of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in North Carolina and Tennessee.

Although the tourist-pottery trade generally called for glossy lead glazes colored with ceramic oxides or "stains," the candle-makers had a preference for matte or semi-matte lead-rutile glazes. These glazes were initially purchased commercially from a firm in New York City. Of course, the potters in the Old North State didn't hesitate to use such glazes on other forms, and lead-rutile mattes were quite popular until the Federal restrictions on lead content eliminated them in the early 1980s. At right, a pitcher by Thurston Cole of C. C. Cole Pottery glazed in a blue lead-rutile matte glaze.

While some Seagrove area potters still produce earthenware art pottery, the
modern era has seen a return of stoneware to dominate the market. Some stoneware is fired at moderate temperatures -- Orton Cone 6 or 7 -- but most of it is cranked up to Cone 10 or Cone 11, exceeding 2400 degrees F. So while the lead-rutile mattes are gone, in their place have come varieties of stoneware art-pottery pitchers -- some wood-fired, some with exotic glazes, some propane-fired in reduction. Shown at left: a tall, elegant, polychrome-glazed pitcher by Benjamin Burns, Great White Oak Pottery in Seagrove, North Carolina; illustrated for perspective beside an M. L. Owens cream pitcher.

Above: Earthenware pitchers from the modern (post-1980) era of Seagrove Pottery; on the left, M. L. Owens Pottery, and on the right, J. B. Cole Pottery (by Linda Potts).

Three decorated stoneware pitchers from Whynot Pottery, located in the community of Whynot near Seagrove, North Carolina.
Two views of a vintage polychrome-glazed pitcher by Thurston Cole, C. C. Cole Pottery. The colored lead glazes in this piece have run and blended to give a unique result to the finished piece. C. C. Cole Pottery workers applied a whitish body glaze, then dribbled bands of color around the body, and finally dipped the top of the piece in another colored glaze.
Above: Four pitchers by Phil Graves of J. B. Cole Pottery. The two in front are from the 1930s, made with Michfield light clay; the two in back are post-WWII, made with Smithfield redware clay.
Two modern-era pitchers glazed in green. Left: made by Vernon Owens, Jugtown Pottery. Right: made by Mark Heywood, Whynot Pottery.Above: Ice-water pitcher with lid, Seagrove Pottery "Crystal Blue" glaze, made and glazed by Walter Auman and marked with the date "1976." Walter formulated Crystal Blue in the early 1970s, following the first imposition of Federal restrictions on lead-glazed pottery. The result was a soft, semi-matte finish, lighter in tone than the lead-rutile matte blue previously used by Seagrove Pottery and C. C. Cole Pottery. At its best, Crystal Blue was a beautiful glaze, but it had some problems -- it was subject to gross crazing and often was porous, which made it unsuitable for tableware. In the 1970s, many buyers of North Carolina
pottery put their purchases into use -- including the author, who had no inkling what "mint" examples would come to be worth! Left: Walter Auman (standing) and Seagrove Pottery apprentice, whose name has escaped me, photographed by your author in July of 1976 in their tent on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., while participating in the Smithsonian Institution Folklife Festival.

A later reformulation of Crystal Blue produced a very similar glaze which produced a variegated semi-glossy finish. Known as "Stone Blue," it is attractive and popular in its own right, although it lacks some of the softness of Crystal Blue. The reduction of the lead oxide content of glazes was typically accomplished by substitution with some boron oxide, which is suitable for firing at earthenware temperatures but is inherently glossy. When further reductions in lead oxide content were mandated in the early 1980s, semi-matte and semi-glossy lead-rutile glazes were no longer practical.

One of the more remarkable glazes produced by J. B. Cole Pottery was "Dove," a temperamental glaze from the 1970s and early 1980s which came out very well on these two pitchers. "Dove" gave varying results from one kilnload to another, sometimes darker, sometimes lighter, sometimes more blue and sometimes more gray. It was used in limited quantities and is relatively scarce.
Two cream pitchers by M. L. Owens. The yellow creamer on the left is inscribed "Owens" in Melvin's hand. The one on the right is from a cream-and-sugar set bearing a paper label attached by a purchaser indicating the origin to be C. C. Cole Pottery. The glaze is consistent with C. C. Cole and the blue creamer may have been glazed and fired there, but it bears the unmistakable "hand" of M. L. Owens -- including the characteristic spout formation and an out-of-round rim having identical placement and degree in both cases, as shown in the inset. Potters often turned wares for other shops; M. L. Owens is known to have made pieces for Jugtown.
Two views of a tall J. B. Cole Pottery wine pitcher made by Phil Graves and glazed in a Bronze-Green finish. There were several iterations of Bronze-Green, which was produced by over-firing aqua or blue-green glazes.
Two small blue pitchers. Left, by General Foister Cole, Sanford, North Carolina. On the right, by Pisgah Forest Pottery, Arden, North Carolina. Pisgah Forest pieces were made with a porcelainous stoneware clay which required a very high finishing temperature; the glaze is nearly always crazed to some extent.Blue stoneware pitchers by Mark Heywood, Whynot Pottery, Seagrove area. Blue is so popular with buyers and thus is produced in such quantities that potters often become sick of looking at it and begin muttering dark threats about its demise.

Long-necked pitchers made by Dorothy Auman at Seagrove Pottery and glazed by Walter Auman. Like C. C. Cole Pottery, Seagrove Pottery made polychrome-glazed pieces but with a different color palette and application pattern. The blue pitcher on the right is from the 1980s and shows the impact of removing lead from the glazes -- the boron oxide content mandates a glossy finish.

NOTE: A longer version of this article with many more pictures is available on the author's Web site -- click HERE to read and view.

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Text and images copyright 2009 by J. R. Henderson. This article was originally published in Backcountry Notes. Reprinted by permission.

NC Art Pottery Rebecca Jugs

By Jay Henderson

The Rebecca jug is an enduringly popular form of North Carolina art pottery. The "Rebecca" got its name from illustrations of the Biblical story of Rebecca at the Well (in Genesis, Chapter 24). The classic shape of the Rebecca is that of an ewer (a vase-shaped water jug) with an elongated, over-arched handle. While single-handled pieces are the norm, there are also large two-handled ewers known as "Double Rebeccas." Right: Joe Owen Rebecca on display at the North Carolina Pottery Center.

Note: click on any image for a larger view

Although not unique to North Carolina art pottery, the Rebecca jug developed a strong association with the Tar Heel State during the 1930s, when many tens of thousands were made for customers, the tourist trade, and resorts. The 1932 J B Cole catalog listed three Rebecca jugs in sizes from 10½" to 17½", while the 1940 catalog lists six Rebeccas ranging from 4½" to a monumental three-footer. Much of the production of Rebeccas was unmarked, even by potters who normally stamped their wares, because these pieces often were moved in wholesale lots.

Left: Rebecca jug by Waymon Cole, 1940s. Identification of vintage Rebeccas can be a challenge because so many of them were unmarked. Nonetheless, there are typical elements which can help to identify the maker. Small, mid-sized, and some large Rebeccas usually have a pedestal base with a rolled bottom edge, a rounded body, a tapered neck, and a rim with a spout, plus the handle. Some larger Rebeccas were made without the pedestal base. Points to observe include the thickness and height of the pedestal, the shape of the body (ovoid, semi-ovoid, or rotund), the length and taper of the neck, the width and flare of the rim, the shape of the spout, and the formation and attachment of the handle.

Right: Double Rebecca attributed to J. B. Cole, 1930s. The potters who made these wares depended on high rates of production for their living. The numbers they turned out are quite remarkable in comparison to modern studio art potteries; C. C. Cole Pottery, for example, produced small wares (honey jugs, cider jugs, Rebeccas, and so on) at the rate of five thousand to ten thousand per week during the peak season. The need to produce such numbers meant that the turners developed routine, characteristic ways to make the pots. For example, in the case of Rebeccas, there are three options for the top handle attachment: on the outside of the rim; on the inside; and straight on. Once a potter established his or her routine, it was followed faithfully to produce many pieces which share common traits.

Left: Rebecca jug by Thurston Cole, C. C. Cole Pottery, 1950s. Glazes offer another means of identifying vintage Rebeccas. A pottery would use the same glazes for Rebecca jugs as it did for other forms, so that becoming familiar with a particular shop's range of glazes and glaze results helps to narrow the possibilities. Certain glazes were used by more than one pottery -- the lead-rutile matte glazes, for example -- but even so there can be differences in the end result. A. R. Cole Pottery fired its red-clay wares to a higher temperature than most others, for example, producing lead-rutile glaze results that are glossy and highly variegated. For another example, C. C. Cole Pottery's polychrome glazes are as familiar on its Rebeccas as on its honey jugs and cider jugs.

Above: Early Rebecca jugs dating to the 1930s. The backswept handle seen on the jug on the far left was used during the early 1930s but was abandoned possibly because it required too much space in the kiln compared to upright and overshot handles.

The Rebecca jugs shown above all are attributed to C. C. Cole Pottery (although I am open to persuasion as to the gray jug on the far right, back row). The Rebeccas on the back row are attributed to Thurston Cole and on the front row to Dorothy Cole Auman.

This image shows the handle attachment (on the outside of the rim) and spout formation typical of C. C. Cole wares. The neck of Rebeccas made by Thurston Cole is thicker than is seen on those made by Dorothy Auman.Rebecca jugs by Joe Owen. Note the short, thick pedestal, ovoid body, thick neck, and moderate rim flare, plus straight-on handle attachment. The overall look of Joe Owen Rebeccas is stout, whether in a small or a large size.

Above: These four Rebeccas are very similar in form, but differ in certain details. The two on the left are from A. R. Cole Pottery; the two on the right are from C. C. Cole Pottery, by Dorothy Auman. There are characteristic differences in the formation of the pedestal, the shape of the body (the A. R. Cole Pottery pieces are more rotund), and the shape of the spout. The Rebecca on the top left was probably made by Neolia Cole.Rebecca jugs glazed in Brown Sugar and Tobacco-spit glazes.
Contemporary Rebecca jugs by Larry Moore, Moore Pots Pottery.
Contemporary Rebeccas by (left) Terry King, (right) Matthew Nance
Vintage C. C. Cole Pottery Rebeccas on display at the North Carolina Pottery Center.

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Text and images copyright 2009 by J. R. Henderson. This article was originally published in Backcountry Notes, Rebecca Jugs . Reprinted by permission.